


Childhood memories

by strangerthingswasntthatgood



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Abuse, CW, Other, content warning, trigger warning, tw
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-15
Updated: 2018-03-15
Packaged: 2019-03-31 17:40:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,391
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13980162
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/strangerthingswasntthatgood/pseuds/strangerthingswasntthatgood
Summary: A few of the memories Billy Hargrove has of his mother.





	Childhood memories

**Author's Note:**

> Look, I made myself sad again. I don't know if it's actually "Mrs" when you're married, but she's supposed to be married to Neil.

“Mom!” Billy ran closer to his mother, his short and chubby legs taking as long steps as he could. He held out his arms to her and she laughed, but embraced him as soon as he came close enough. Her arms made Billy felt secure.

“What’s going on, sweetie?” Mrs Hargrove asked, as she carefully pulled back to have a look at her son.

“We have to keep reading!”, Billy replied, voice hushed, as if it was a secret. Neil, somewhere behind him, laughed. He stood in the kitchen and made them all breakfast. Billy must have just woken up.

“Honey, we have to eat first!” Mrs Hargrove laughed and pulled him up in another hug. She carried him to the table and sat him down. The child soon kicked his legs and hummed along to the music on the radio. He watched as his mother walked closer to his father and gently wrapped both arms around him from behind. Billy didn’t know everything would change very, very soon.

 

* * *

 

It was Billy’s birthday when she told him. Billy sat together with his mother and read the same book they had read three or four times already. _To Kill A Mockingbird._ It would always have a special meaning to Billy and unlike most of his other books, he’d never throw it away.

“Bill?” Mrs Hargrove whispered in his ear and carefully put the book away. Billy crawled up on her lap and watched her with big, blue eyes.

“I have a secret to tell you, but you have to promise not to tell anyone. Not even dad.” Mrs Hargrove smiled at him. Billy pressed a finger to her lips to show her he’d say quiet and hushed her.

“You’re getting a baby sister or brother!”

Billy stared at her. Mrs Hargrove couldn’t help but to laugh and gently wrapped both arms around the child in her lap.

“Do you want a sister or a brother?” she asked and gently rocked from side to side, as Billy began chuckling.

“I’m gonna be a big brother?” he asked and wrapped both arms around her, as well. “I want twins! One brother and one sister!”

Mrs Hargrove pulled Billy down to lay next to him. They both laid on their sides, to be able to look at each other.

“Let’s hope for twins, then.” Mrs Hargrove laughed and pressed a loud kiss to the top of Billy’s head.

 

* * *

 

It had just begun to show. Billy could clearly see the little bump on his mother’s tummy and he wanted to curl up next to her all the time and talk to the baby in there. He was really going to be an older brother!

He could hear loud voices from the kitchen. His dad had told him to go to his room, that the adults had to have a talk, but Billy didn’t like the loud voices from there. He tried to watch the ocean outside. If he opened the window and ran for a minute or so, he’d be able to jump right in, but his mother had always told him he wasn’t allowed to go to the beach on his own.

The voices had stopped for a moment. Billy glanced over his shoulder on the door and tiptoed closer. When he couldn’t hear anything even when he pressed his ear to the door, he carefully pushed it open. It creaked, but none of the adults seemed to notice. His mother leaned against one of the kitchen counters, one hand covering her cheek and the other resting on her belly. His father, on the other hand, stood with his hands tightly wrapped around a bottle of beer.

“You get rid of that _thing_.” Billy heard his father whisper and before Billy could figure out what it was, the beer was thrown to the wall right next to Mrs Hargrove’s face.

“Mom!” Billy ran closer. His father turned around, but it didn’t really matter. Everything that mattered was that his mother was okay.

“William, go back to your room!” his mother didn’t scream, but her voice was high pitched and Billy didn’t think she had ever said something like this to him.

“No!”, he pushed his father and hoped that the man would at least take a step back, but he didn’t. “Don’t hurt my mama!”

Neil grabbed both his wrists. The tight hold hurt and Billy tried to pull back, but Neil was too strong.

“Neil, let him go!”

What happened next was something Billy would never forget. His father let go off him, but slapped his mother right over her face. The cheek she had been holding was already red and years later Billy would figure out this wasn’t the first time he hit her, but right now, the only thing he could think about was what his father had done. Billy tried to rush past his father, but the man once again grabbed his wrists and roughly pushed him back to his bedroom. When Billy didn’t do as he was told, Neil threw him to the floor and pushed the door close behind him with a loud bang.

 

* * *

 

The last time Billy would ever see his mother was a saturday night. He was curled up next to her as she read for him. He didn’t know where Neil was and he honestly couldn’t care. Since the day where Billy had first caught him hitting her, Mrs Hargrove had left and now they stayed with her mother. It wasn’t ideal, but it was the best they could do.

“William, baby?” she whispered quietly, when she reached the last page of the book. “Could you read the last page for me? I want to rest my eyes for a bit.”

Billy nodded and took the book from her.

“Mom?” he asked and leaned in to hug her.

They didn’t say anything for a long time. When his mother finally moved again, he pulled back and smiled at her. He didn’t know what was wrong with her and why she had to stay in bed most of the time, but he knew she had lost weight and that her head hurt a lot. He wasn’t allowed to watch telly nor play with his friends in the house when she felt bad.

“William”, she whispered gently and pulled a necklace from her neck. She always wore it. “Will you take care of this for me?”

Billy nodded as soon as she had hung it around his neck. He didn’t know why, but he couldn’t say anything. A lump had formed in his throat and it burned behind his eyelids.

“Now read for me?”

Billy nodded again. He curled closer to her and read. He was nowhere as good as she was, but she didn’t complain. When he reached the end, Billy curled closer to her again and noticed that she was asleep. He closed his eyes and fell asleep right next to his dying mother.

 

* * *

 

“He’s abusive!”

Billy sat in court. He had just turned twelve. He had lived with his grandmother for a year or so before his father demanded he got Billy back. His father had married someone else, someone with a daughter and a fear of dogs.

“I’m his father!”

Billy watched as his father and his grandmother spoke. He tried not to listen, but it was difficult.

“My daughter is dead because of you. I always told her she deserved so much better.”

His father won. Once again, he was back in the house where he could see the ocean. He didn’t have the same room as he had before, it was Maxine’s now. The only thing he managed to keep from his father was the book and the necklace. It was the only thing he had left from his mother. He didn’t even have a photograph and it would take another twenty years before he ever got one. By the time, he would have forgotten what she looked like and what her laugh sounded like. By that time, he would have his own little children. He’d see Max and Susan from time to time, but refused to meet his father even on his deathbed. Max was the one who gave him the photographs. They became closer after that and Billy trusted Max with all the things he couldn’t even tell his husband.


End file.
